In many fields of communication between two or more computers such as those used in military avionics, tanks, howitzer systems and the like wherein digital and analog information must be processed between computers, it has been a common practice to drive the inputs of a transmitter section of one transceiver with digital data which is then appropriately processed in the transmitter and used in turn to drive an output transformer. This output transformer may be connected in one of several available transformer configurations, and the output transformer is in turn connected to a standard bus line and data link and is operative to convert the digital data to an analog voltage of a specified wave shape, waveform timing and power level. These later parameters must be sufficient to properly transmit the analog data from the transceiver over the bus line and to a similar transceiver located at a remote computer within the particular communication system.
For example, in certain military aircraft avionics systems, there might be one such computer in the aircraft cockpit to provide pilot information from another remotely located computer operative for providing various aircraft operational parameters such as speed, direction, fuel levels, temperatures, wind velocities and the like. These two physically separated computers would therefore each be equipped with one or more transceivers which are connected over relatively short data bus links typically on the order of 300 feet or less.
In the past, it has been a common practice to use several hybrid connections in the fabrication of a transceiver of the type described above. This practice required that a common insulating substrate such as a ceramic material be used to support and provide electrical interconnections between various components on the substrates such as one or more integrated circuit die, discrete capacitors, thin film resistors, and the like. The requirement for these hybrid circuit interconnections and associated fabrication assembly processes had the disadvantage of providing the additional space required to accommodate the substrate size, and more importantly the disadvantage of increased production costs and decreased device reliability associated with these hybrid fabrication and interconnection processes.
Two patents which illustrate prior art transceivers are U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,466 issued on Oct. 6, 1992 to Stein, et al., entitled “All Monolithic Transceiver Operative From A Low Voltage Vcc Dc Supply” (the “Stein Patent”); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,722 issued to Michael Consi on Nov. 17, 1998, entitled “Monolithic transceiver including feedback control” (the “Consi Patent”). Both the Stein Patent and the Consi Patent are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.